Apparatus for raising liquids



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J. P. STEPHENS ET AL Filed April 29, 1935 Jan. 3,' 1939.

APPARATUS FOR RAISING LIQUIDS Patented Jan. 3, 1939 UNITED STATES lllAPPARATUS FOB MISING `QUIDS James P. Stephens,

Mllllehlrlldl Clarence l E. Steele, and William F. Flood. Oklahoma City,

swam anu ze, lass, serai Nn. isses 9Ciaims.

'l'his inventionk relates to apparatus for raising tubing. I 4 isprovided with two spaced plates I1 liquids from wells, and in particularit relates to an improved type of gas lift pump for effecting raising ofliquids, such as oil and water, from wells and drill holes.

The object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus forraising liquids from wells, which contains a minimum of moving parts,and Is positive and reliable in operation.

Other objects of this invention are to provide an apparatus for raisingliquids from well and drill holes with a minimum amount of gas pressureand loss of volume thereof, and with a lower gas-liquid ratio thanheretofore practical, and without the necessity of intermittentlyreleasing or bleeding all of thel gas under pressure used in raising theliquid to the surface.

Still further objects and advantages of this invention will beappreciated and become more apparent upon a consideration of thefollowing specification and the attached drawing, forming a partthereof, and wherein like reference characters designate like partsthroughout the several views, and wherein,

Fig. 1 illustrates a vertical cross-sectional view of the apparatus forraising liquids,

Fig. 2 illustrates a modication thereof, and

Fig. 3 is a detailed modification of a valve which may be used inconnection with the structures shown in both Figs. 1 and 2.

Although this invention is adapted'for raising various liquids fromdifferent types of wells and drill holes, one embodiment thereof willnow be described in connection with recovering and raising liquids, suchas oil and/.or water from drill holes and wells. In order to describeone concrete embodiment of this invention there is shown in Fig. l avertical cross-sectional fragmentary view of an oil well holeillustrating the improved apparatus for raising liquids or the gaspressure lift pump, constituting one form of this invention, positionedtherein. `The well hole is shown as lined with the usual casing pipe Ilwhich extends to a depth Il, and below which is the bottom of the wellhole I2, or the conventional shot hole. in which the liquids, such aswater and oil, accumulate as they are forced thereinto by the rockpressure or bottom hole pressure on the producing stratum I3.y

A string of pipe or a tubing Il extends down into the well hole andterminates at its lower end,

adjacentthe bottom of the well hole, in a bull plug and Il which formtherebetween a chamber Il. The size ci this chamber may yvary with 'thedifferent conditions encountered in the bottom of the well hole, butwhen a high bottom hole `presi sure is present a relatively largechamber Il will be required to collect the liquid therein as will belater described. A valve cage and seat 2i are secured to the upper sideof plate I1, and are provided with the valve 22, to control the inlet 22to l0 chamber Il, and includes a valve stem 22 guided in the cage 20. Acompressed spring 24 housed within the cage 2l serves to normally holdlthe valve 22 in a closed position, thus shutting oi! the chamber I9from the bull plug I5 and the botll of the chamber Il, and is providedwith the valve 25 32 to control the outlet 32' for chamber It, andincludes a stem Il guided in the cage Il. A compressed spring serves tonormally hold the valve 32 upon the seat 3|, thus permitting flow of theliquid and gas, as will later be described, l0

in one direction only, namely from the chamber I9 to the space 54 aboveplate I8 between pipes I4 and 40. The valve seat 3i has a dependingcollar portion 35, and secured thereto is a pipe or tube It whichextends into the chamber I! to a $8 point adjacent the lower endthereof.

A second string of pipe or a tubing III, which constitutes a fluidpressure or gas line, extends down into the well hole within the tubingI4.

'I'he lower end of the pipe 40 extends through an 40 aperture in plateIl and establishes communication with the top portion of the chamber Il.

Inserted in the string of pipe 4l, and a considerable distance above thechamber Il and the valve 32, is a section of pipe 50 including the valve45 seat 5I and a po'rt 52 formed in a side wall of the pipe sectionbelow the seat and in which is secured a tube 53 spanning the space Il,between the pipes 40 and Il, and which fits into a port Il formed in thetube Il, thereby establishing com- 50 munication between the interior oftubing 4I and the space Si between tubing Il and the casing Il. Withinthe pipe 5l is a valve 51 provided with a stem Il, the upper end ofwhich carries a head 5I. Also within the pipe Il and above the valve I5seat 5I there is formed a stop 60 for the compressed spring BI, andwhich by forcing against the head 59 retains the valve 51 in contactwith the seat 5I. Upon the lower end of the valve stem 58 there isformed a head 52 having an orifice 63 and provided with thecylindricalsleeve or sliding valve 54 adapted to close port 52. Thus itwill be seen that when the spring 5I is compressed, the valve 51 will beunseated and the sleeve 64 forced downwardly to close the port 52,A

and when the spring-6I seats valve 51 the sleeve 64 will be above port52, leaving the same open. The valve 51, contained in the insert pipe50, is positioned a considerable distance above the chamber I9 so thatthe liquid in the bottom of the well hole will not'be likely to reach alevel sufiiciently high enough to choke the port 55, which is used as anexhaust and the full function of `which will be described later.

In the operation of the gas lift pump above described the same islowered into the well hole `by means of pipes I4 and 40 until the bullplug I5 is adjacent the bottom of the hole I2, at which time the variousparts will be in the positions il-l` lustrated in Fig. l. With thegas'lift pump in thisposition, `the liquid forced out of the oil bearingstrata I3 and into the bottom of the well hole l2 by the rock or bottomhole pressure will, along with any Water present, enter through theapertures I5 into the bull plug I5, andas the liquid level and pressuretherein builds up the liquid will be forced through inlet 22 and intothe chamber I 9 when the pressure is sumcient to overcome the force ofspring 24 and open valve 22. It is now apparent that chamber I9 willcontain considerable liquid, such as water and/or oil, or

may be completely filled with some liquid standv ing in the lower end ofthe pipe 4II.` A fluid under l pressure, such as gas or air, is nowsupplied from the surface and forced down the pipe 40 and the pressurewill be sufiicient to compress the spring 8i and force the valve 51open, and at the same time cause the sleeve valve 64 to close the port52which connects with thetube 53 and leads to the space 56 between pipesI0 and I4. The gas or` air under pressure will continue on down pipe 40and enter the chamber I9 building up therein a. pressure suilicient toovercome the bottom hole pressure on the liquid in the bull plug I5 andto close valve 22, and so prevent the escape through the` outlet 22', ofthe fluid under pressure and the liquid already contained in chamber I9and to guard against the entrance of additional liquid. It is not onlydesirable to prevent the escape of iluid under pressure from chamber I 9so that the same may not be lost, but also to prevent it from gettinginto the well hole and forcing against the stratum I3 and so preventingthe recovery of `the oil therein. The pressure will continue to build upwithin the pipe 40 and chamber I 9 and ultimately the liquid will beforced up into pipe to openvalve 32, against the action of spring 34 andthe Weight of any liquid which may be in pipe I4, and force the liquidthrough outlet 32. The oil will then be above the plate I3 in the space54, and at this time the introduction of further air or gas underpressure through pipe into chamber I9 is discontinued with the resultthat valves 51 will be forced to close by spring 6I, and valve 32 willbe closedby the action of spring 34 and the weight of any liquid in thepipe I4.` This leaves the pipe 40, both above and below the valve 51,and the chamber I9 lled with air or gas under considerable pressure andwhich holds valve 22 closed, thus preventing the oil al4a-isi the use ofsuch a pump as here ,described that the bottom hole pressure builds upto the point where it will balance or overcome the air or gas pressurein chamber I5 and cause the oil to flow thereinto, therefore means areprovided whereby the pressure in chamber I5 may be vented or bled toreduce or exhaust the pressure therein so as to allowy the bottom holepressure to again nil the chamber I9 with liquid. Means for doing thisconstitutes the sleeve valve 64, secured to valve stem 53, and whichwhen the valve 51 is closed opens the port 52, thus allowing the air orgas under pressure in chamber I5 and in pipe 4B below the valve 51 toescape by port 52 through tube 53 into `the space 55 and so reduce orexhaust the pressure in chamber Il and yet maintain the volume of air`orgas under pressure in pipe 4II above the valve 51.

With the pressure in chamber I5 now reduced or exhausted, the liquid byvirtue of the bottom hole pressure, or the level thereof, will now beforced or raised up into the inlet 22' and enter chamber Il. Additionalair or gas under pressure supplied by mechanical means controlled at thesurface is then reintroduced into pipe 4l, the pressurein which has notbeen materially exhausted or bled. From pipe 4l the air or gas underpressure is supplied to chamber il to again force the oil therefrom upinto pipe I4. At such times air or gas is being applied through pipe thevalve 51 is open, due to the air or gas under pressure flowingdownwardly therethrough, and the port 52 closed by the sleeve 54.

The above described operation is repeated at intervals as the air or gasunder pressure is intermittently supplied` through pipe 40, until,depending upon various well conditions, an appreciable column of liquidis built up in the space 54, between the pipes I4 and 40, at which timethe air or gas pressure is then turned on and applied through pipe 40 asdescribed for a time suiilcient in length to lift the entire column ofliquid in pipe I4 to the surface.

The above describedoperation of the apparatus for raising liquidconstitutes a complete cycle of operation and is repeated at intervals,and in this `ment of the present invention, and as the majority-of theparts thereof are identical in both structure and operation with theembodiment lllustrated in Fig.1, only the essential parts thereof andthe parts not present in Fig. l will be described in detail. In thisembodiment there is present the conventional casing pipe III, whichextends to a depth I I. The bull plug I5, the valve 22, chamber I5,`pipe 35, valve 32, and pipe 4l and their associated parts are, or maybe, identical in both operation and structure with those illustrated inFig. l. It will be noted that in Fig. 2 there is present the casing pipeIl and only one string of tubing, namely pipe 4I, while in Fig. 1 thereis utilized the casing pipe Il and the two strings of tubing., I4 and45.` The insert 55 including the valve 51, stem 5l, sleeve valve 54 andport 52 are substantially identical to the insert 5l and its associatedparts as shown in Fig. l except the pipe 53 is dispensed with and one ormore parts 52 communicate directly with a space 1l between the casing II and the string of tubi113 4l.

The bull plug II and the chamber il may be integral, or formedseparately by any suitable members such as tubing or pipes, and thenassembled. As illustrated, a packer body Il is secured to, or integralwith the upper rend of' ther plate il to connect chamber il with pipe40.

The packer neck Il is provided with a threaded portion Il to facilitateremoval of the fluid pressure lift pump in the event the string oftubing Il should break, and also has formed therein a plurality ofapertures l5 through which the liquid escapes into the space 'Il afterleaving chamber Il through outlet 32'. y

The operation of this embodiment illustrated in Fig. 2 is substantiallythe e as that described in connection with th embodiment shown in Fig'.1, except .that in the structure disclosed in Fig. 2 the entire deviceis lowered into the well hole by the single string of pipe 4I, and whenin place the packer li and anchor 82 are set and together they form aseal between the bottom of the well holeand the upper portion 1Ithereof, and also serve to support the pump in the hole. Furthermore theports l2, when not closed by the sleeve Il, are in direct communicationwith space 'Il for bleeding or exhausting the pressure in chamber Il,the pipe Il', and the portion of pipe 4I below valve l1.

In Fig. 3 there is illustrated a modified type of valve which may beusedto supplant the valve I1 as used in the structures shown in Figs. 1 and2. This valve includes the pipe insert Il and contains a valve seat Si.valve 02, and a stem l! which is guided in the cage Il and has a pointedend il. A spring within the cage normally tends to maintain the valveseated. The insert ll is provided with the ports Il which are connectedby the transverse tube 91 in alignment therewith, and includes on itsupper face an orifice I! communicating with the internal bore of' thetube and the ports 98. Formed integral with the valve seat Il and`cageu, or secured thereto, there may be provided a yoke III, whichterminates in a screw threaded head Ill for facilitating the removal ofthe valve assembly for repairs or adjustments. e

When the valve assembly above described is used to supplant the oneshown in Figs. 1 and 2, and air or gas under pressure is being forceddown the tubing 4l and through the insert Il, the valve Il will .beopened by the air or gas pressure against the` action ot spring Il. Asthe valve opens, the stem l is forced downwardly until the point IIthereof Vseats in orifice thereby preventing the escape of air or gasunder pressure through the tube 91 and ports When the pressure in thetubing Il is decreased the valve I! will be closed by spring thusopening the orifice l allowing the pressure in the tube and chamberbelow to escape or bleed oi! through the or gas under pressure to thepump above described in relatively snort intermittent impulses that aconsiderable amount of liquid from the well hole will soon be built upin the pipe above the liquid accumulating chamber without the necessityof bleeding or venting the air or gas under pressure in the entirestring of pipe leading to the chamber, and that by then applying the airor gas under pressure to the chamber and allowing it to fiow for asumcient time all the liquid thereabove will be raised to the surface,thus effecting a material savings in the volume of gas or air needed toraise the liquid and reducing the gasliquid ratio to a minimum.

What we claim as our invention is:

l. In a fluid pressure litt pump for raising liduids from the bottom ofwell holes to the surface including a chamber for the accumulation ofthe liquid, a pipe for introducing fluid under pressurev into saidchamber to force the liquid therein to the surface, thecombinationtherewith ot a valve in said pipe to control theintroductionof fluid under pressure into said chamber, anda vent in saidpipe to exhaust the fluid under pressure in said chamber without loss offluid'under ypressure in said pipe, said vent comprising a tubularmember extending transversely of and through said pipe, and having anoriiice therein for the escape therethrough of fluid underpressure-.from vsaid chamber and pipe, and means integral 'withsid valveto open and close said oriiice.

2. A uid pressure operated device for raising liquids from well holes,the same comprising a tubing pipe extending into the well hole havingformed integral therewith va liquid accumulation chamber provided withan inlet and an outlet. a second tubing pipe within and spaced from thefirst said tubing pipe andv extending into said accumulation chamber forsupplying fluid under pressure thereto, a valve in said pipe to .controlthe introduction of uid under pressure into said chamber, a vent tubeextending from andi-oonnecting the interior of said second tubing pipewith the space exterior of said first tubing pipe for exhausting fluidunder pressure from said chamber, and a closure for said vent tubeformed integral with said valve and operable to open said vent when saidvalve is closed.

3. A fluid pressure operated device for raising liquids from well holes,the same comprising a tubing pipe extending into the well hole andsupporting therefrom a liquid accumulation charn-l ber of uniformlycontinuous diameter and oi the same diameter as said pipe and havingformed therein an inlet and an outlet, a second tubing pipe within andspaced from the first said tubing pipe and extending into saidaccumulation chamber for supplying fluid under pressure thereto, a valvein said pipe to control the introduction of fluid under pressure intosaid chamber, a vent tube extending from and connecting the interior ofsaid second tubing pipe with the space exterior of said first tubingpipe for exhausting fluid under pressure from said chamber, and aclosure for said vent tube formed integral with said valve and operableto open said vent tube when said valve is closed.

4.4 A fluid pressure operated device for raising liquids from wellholes, the same comprising a liquid accumulation chamber having auniformly continuous diameter, a tubingv pipe extending into saidchamber to support the same and to supply fluid under pressure thereto,a valve in said tubing pipe to control the admission of fluid underpressure. and a vent in said pipe for exhausting fluid under 'pressurefrom said chamber controlled by said valve.

5.Afiuiripressure i'bmu'mtecldevicetoi-raising75 liquids from a wellhole to the surface, the same including a tubing pipe extending into thewell hole, a tubular casing of uniformly continuous Ydiameter suspendedtherefrom, spaced division plates transversely arranged in said casingand forming therebetween an accumulation chamber for liquid, a valvecontrolleddnlet formed in the lower of said plates, a valve controlledoutlet formed in the upper of said plates, a secondV thereto of duidunder pressure, an orice in said tubing pipe below said last valve, anorifice in said first tubing pipe opposite said iirst mentioned orifice.and a pipe connecting s aid oriilces for the escape therethrough of thefluid under pressure from said chamber when the application of pressurethereto is discontinued.

6. A uuid pressure operated device for raising liquids from a well holeto the surface, the same including a tubular pipe extending into a'wellhole, a tubular casing of a uniformly continuous diameter suspendedtherefrom and of a larger diameter than said tubing pipe, spaced platespositioned in said casing to divide the same into an intermediateportion constituting a liquid accumulation chamber, an end portionforming a bull-plug, and another end portion constituting an outletchamber, a valve controlled inlet in one of said plates, a valvecontrolled outlet in the` other of said plates, said tubular pipeextending through said outlet chamber and into said liquid accumulation`chamber for supplying fluid under pressure thereto, a valve in saidtubing pipe to control the admission of fluid under pressure to saidchamber. and a vent in said tubing pipe exterior of said accumulationchamber and a considerable distance thereabove for exhausting the fluidunder pressure from said chamber when saidtubing pipe valve is closed.

'1. In a device for raising fluids from a well hole having a casingtherein, a single tubing nient on the end oi' said tubing stringproviding a chamber, a packer positioned between said enlargement andsaid casing, spaced, division plates in said enlargement providing aliquid accumulation chamber therein, inlet and outlet valvesin saidplates, respectively, a conduit placing said tubing string incommunication with said liquid accumulation chamber, a valve in saidtubing string for controlling the admission of an actuating fluid underpressureto said chamber to force the accumulated fluidtherefrom, saidtubing string provided with a port for the exhaust of actuatingiluidfrom said chamber, and a valve for controlling said exhaust port.

8. A fluid pressure operated device for raising liquids from well holes,the same comprising a liquid accumulation chamber, a tubing pipeextending into said chamber to support the same' and to supply fluidunder pressure thereto, a valve in said tubing pipe to control theadmission of fluid under` pressure, and a vent in said pipe forexhausting fluid under pressure from said chamber controlled by saidvalve.

9. A device for raising liquids from a well comprising a liquidaccumulation chamber in said well hole having an inlet and an outlet forliquid, a tubing pipe connected with said chamber for supplying fluidunder pressure thereto and exhausting fluid therefrom, a valve in saidpipe for controlling the admission of said fluid under pressure to saidchamber, said valve having a sleeve portion slidably engaging saidtubing pipe, a vent insaid tubing pipe adjacent said sleeve and adaptedto be closed thereby in the fluid admitting position of said valve.

. JAMES P. STEPHENS. CLARENCE M. RADER. FRANCIS E. STEELE. WILLIAM F.FLDOD.

